Large living rooms, luxurious locker-room style baths, a brand new dining hall with outdoor seating and more. This is what the new building complex of the Residential Commons will offer students who reside there starting this fall.
The new complex, a $146 million project, was dedicated May 9 and will provide housing for 1,250 SMU students. The term “Residential Commons” refers to all 11 residence halls, not just the five new ones located on the southeast side of campus.
The Residential Commons system was designed by Residence Life and Student Housing officials, faculty, administrators and students to promote a sense of community, and the new complex is a reflection of that effort.
“The hallways are designed for more community space,” said Student Body Vice President Monica Finnegan, who will be a resident assistant (RA) in Crum Commons this coming year. “You have more tables and lounges and you cannot walk down your hallway without seeing people.”
Finnegan and 17 other students were involved in the designing process, along with Director of Residence Life Jennifer Post. This group studied the University of Oxford’s residence model last summer and incorporated many of those characteristics, such as having a unique crest for each hall, into SMU’s Residential Commons system. Post said she hopes the new system will help students feel more comfortable in their dorms.
“Right now, even though all of our first-year students live on campus, sometimes it feels dead on the weekends,” Post said. “It’s designed to be home.”
Sophomore Sam Doctor, a soon-to-be resident of Armstrong Hall, is excited about the new building for reasons other than its novelty.
“It’s right next to the gym, the new dining hall is awesome, and the new quad looks amazing,” Doctor said. “Me and my roommate chose the new dorms over living in somewhere quiet for the same reason I chose to live in Boaz last year: we want to be where the people are.”
Some students are skeptical about the location of the new complex and the size of its rooms.
Sophomore Sarah Huff is looking forward to her brand new dorm, but wishes her room were more spacious.
“I understand that the school wants students to spend less time in their dorm rooms,” she said, “but since we’re required to live on campus for a second year, it would’ve been nice to have a new, larger space to live in.”
While the new complex and updates to existing residence halls are aesthetically pleasing, the Residential Commons system offers more than meets the eye. RAs are required to plan events that focus on different goals, such as community and tradition. The new system also features a Faculty-in-Residence (FiR) for each residence hall.
These are professors who live among students. Their roles are not to chaperone the residence halls, but to offer support and guidance. Finnegan, who was an RA last year in Virginia-Snider, treasures the experience she shared with her FiR, clinical assistant professor Ann Batenburg.
“One day, I had a really bad day. It was just life, and she took me into her room and we had brownies and cookies and talked about it,” Finnegan said. “That can make a difference for someone. It made a difference for me.”
Visit the FiRs’ blog, the Residential Commons website and Pinterest page for more information and photos of the new complex.
